Normally, an anime hero wouldn’t kill their enemy. Whether it’s because of their strong morals or lack of bloodlust, anime heroes are simply above taking a life. But in some extreme emotional circumstances, they have no choice but to kill.
These heroes killed their opponents not out of malice or sadism, but for hesitant reasons like revenge, duty, or even pity. Though they won these fights, these heroes still felt like they lost something when they ended it by shedding blood.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
10 Redo Of Healer — Keyaruga Humiliated & Tortured His Enemies For Vengeful Fun
In his first life, Keyaruga’s time as the healing hero was hell. Not only did his fellow heroes treat him like dirt, but they assaulted and tortured him for fun. Upon acquiring the Philosopher’s Stone, Keyaruga rewound time so that he could meet Jioral Kingdom’s heroes again, but exact furious vengeance upon them.
While he brainwashed Princess Flare Arlgrande Jioral, he left others like the knights’ captain, Leonard, and the Sword Hero, Blade, for dead. That being said, Keyaruga actually didn’t lay a hand on them. Instead, he watched them get brutalized by his mind-controlled minions before breaking their wills to live with a final insult.
9 Tokyo Ghoul — Ken Kaneki Took His Time With Jason
Kaneki never wanted to be Ghoul, but fate had other plans. Aside from becoming the all-powerful linchpin that could end or worsen the human/Ghoul war, Kaneki was subjected to suffering at the hands of both humans and Ghoul. The one who broke him was Yakumo Oomori, who’s better known as Jason.
Jason tortured Kaneki for ten days, but just when he was about to kill him, Kaneki broke free and quickly destroyed Jason. Kaneki then returned the favor by mauling Jason. Unlike the manga where Kaneki left Jason for dead, the anime heavily implied that Kaneki killed Jason after torturing him and devouring his kagune.
8 One Piece — Monkey D. Luffy Punched Baron Omatsuri So Hard That He Died
Luffy is more of a fun-loving adventurer than a pirate, but that changed in the movie One Piece: Baron Omatsuri And The Secret Island. When the Straw Hats stopped by what they thought was an island resort, they almost suffered a fate worse than death. Specifically, being absorbed alive by Baron Omatsuri’s demon flower, Lily Carnation.
By the last act, the baron had assimilated all of Luffy’s crew, leaving him alone. Luffy futilely fought Baron Omatsuri, but it was only when the Teacup Pirates’ captain shot Lily that Luffy inflicted serious damage. That said, Luffy was so enraged that he killed Baron Omatsuri in one hit, making him the first and only foe that he’s killed (so far).
7 Blade Of The Immortal (2019) — Rin Finished Her Vengeance By Killing Kagehisa Anotsu
After her family was slaughtered by Anotsu and his fanatical Itto-Ryu group, Rin hired the ronin Manji to avenge her loved ones. For most of Blade Of The Immortal, though, Rin and Manji rarely crossed paths with Anotsu. If anything, they didn’t have to do anything to kill him, since the shogunate had that taken care of.
By the end, the shogunate betrayed the Itto-Ryu and sent its Rokki-Dan assassins to kill Anotsu and his followers. Rin and Manji found themselves in the middle of the war, but Anotsu was as good as dead. Despite this, Manji bested Anotus in armed combat before Rin stabbed him just as she promised him the first time they met.
6 Attack On Titan — The Remaining Scouts Let Bertholdt Hoover Get Devoured
Reiner and Bertholdt’s betrayal was one of the most painful moments of the Survey Corps’ lives, and their resentment for their former comrades was still raw during the retaking of Wall Maria. During the fight to reclaim Shiganshina, Eren Yeager took down the Colossal Titan (aka Bertholdt), but this cost Armin Arlert’s life.
Rather than quickly kill Bertholdt, Levi Ackerman and the Survey Corps elected to feed him to a Titanized Armin. Pragmatically, this gave them control of the Colossal Titan’s power. Emotionally, though, this was the closest to poetic justice the Scouts could impose on Bertholdt for the deaths and horrors he caused.
5 Demon Slayer — Tanjiro Freed The Spider Demon Mother Through Death
Part of Demon Slayer‘s drama comes from Tanjiro’s hesitation to slay demons. As the anime went on, Tanjiro realized that the demons he hated weren’t that different from people. Take the Spider Demon Mother for instance. Despite her vicious powers of using victims as puppets, Tanjiro gave her the easy way out by mercy killing her.
The Spider Demon Mother was a young girl who was forced into her role as “mother” by Rui, and she loathed this. Furthermore, failure would result in death by her “family’s” hands or worse. Rather than face such punishment and to be free of Rui, she let Tanjiro kill her. Upon realizing what she truly wanted, Tanjiro switched his killing blow to a painless one.
4 Fate/Zero — Saber Fulfilled Berserker’s Desperate Death Wish
Just like in the Arthurian myths that Fate borrows from, Sir Lancelot was King Artoria’s most trusted knight. However, Lancelot had an affair with his king’s wife, Queen Guinevere, and this indirectly led to King Arthur’s death and Camelot’s fall. Lancelot was burdened by guilt, and he sought death by his king’s hand.
Lancelot returned in Fate/Zero as Berserker, and even in his mindless rage, he knew he had to fight Saber to get his wish. Saber had no choice but to kill her friend to survive, and she was torn by this. Lancelot, though, was glad that his king ended his torment. While he returned to life as Berserker, Lancelot died free as himself.
3 Assassination Classroom — Class 3-E Aced Koro-Sensei’s Lessons By Killing Him
In order to finally graduate and save the world, the bottom-ranked Class 3-E had to kill their teacher Koro-Sensei. Problem is, Koro-Sensei was a physically and mentally powerful alien, making it almost impossible to kill or outsmart him. The tables turned in Assassination Classroom‘s finale, although nobody was excited about it.
After spending so much time together, Class 3-E and Koro-Sensei genuinely cared for one another. When the time came to finally kill Koro-Sensei, his students reluctantly put what they learned to practice. Nagisa Shiota volunteered to deliver the killing blow, and he only did so after tearful hesitation and Koro-Sensei’s reassurance.
2 Narutaru — Shiina Tamai Strangled Hiroko Kaizuka To End The Suffering
When Shiina came across a strange alien known as a Shadow Dragon, she adopted it and named it Hoshimaru. While Shiina embarked on fun adventures with her pet, her friend Hiroko went through hell. After enduring enough bullying and worse, Hiroko snapped and unleashed her Shadow Dragon on her tormentors.
Hiroko fell off the deep end and was about to go on a rampage, but Shiina tried to stop her. After failing to talk her down, Shiina took matters into her own hands and killed her friend. Though she averted a massacre, Shiina was left traumatized. It’s worth noting that the anime ended here, but this was just the beginning of much worse in the manga.
1 Cowboy Bebop — Spike Spiegel Ran Back To His Past By Facing Vicious
The tragedy of Cowboy Bebop is that the characters could’ve lived a second, better life if they just left their pasts behind, but they didn’t. In Spike’s case, he could’ve started fresh if he just stayed away from The Red Dragon Syndicate and Vicious. In the end, Spike chose to settle his score with Vicious and died doing so.
Spike and Vicious were friends in the syndicate, but their brotherhood turned into a rivalry that saw Spike leaving. When Spike confronted Vicious, they closed the book by mortally wounding each other. Spike was the last man standing, but he died shortly after. As far as Spike was concerned, though, he was already dead.
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